- Category
- War in Ukraine
Russian Court Jails Ukrainian Man for 24 Years Over Alleged Terror Plot
Prefer U24 Media on Google
- Authors
![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
A Russian military court has sentenced 30-year-old Ukrainian citizen Yan Haupt to 24 years in prison on charges of preparing and carrying out a “terrorist act,” according to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC) on August 4.
The Southern District Military Court in Russia handed down the sentence, ordering Haupt to serve the first five years in prison, followed by the remainder of the term in a maximum-security penal colony. The court also imposed a fine of 700,000 rubles (approximately $8,700).
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
According to the CTRC, Russian investigators claimed that Haupt, who had previously lived in Russian-occupied Crimea before relocating to Krasnodar, established contact with a representative of Ukraine's Security Service between March 2022 and May 2025 and agreed to cooperate confidentially with the agency.
Russian authorities further alleged that on May 12, 2025, he received instructions to prepare and carry out a “terrorist act” in Russia's Krasnodar region, along with the coordinates of a cache containing an improvised explosive device. Investigators claimed he retrieved the device, moved it to another location, and stored it while awaiting further instructions.
According to the CTRC, Haupt was born in Kyiv and moved to Russian-occupied Crimea in 2019, where his fiancée lived. The relocation was also linked to his health, as he has suffered from asthma since childhood and the Crimean climate reportedly eased his condition. In 2024, following what the organization described as deteriorating security conditions on the peninsula, the couple moved to Krasnodar.
Haupt was detained on May 15, 2025, after Russian security officers searched his rented apartment. Initially, he was sentenced to administrative detention for allegedly disobeying police orders.
The CTRC said that instead of being released after serving the administrative sentence, Russia's Federal Security Service opened a criminal case against him, charging him with preparing a terrorist act, illegal possession of explosives, and violating regulations governing the storage, processing, or transmission of computer information and telecommunications networks under the Russian Criminal Code.
On June 25, 2025, Russian authorities added Haupt to the country's federal list of “terrorists and extremists.”
According to the rights group, Haupt graduated from the Kyiv College of Hotel Management and was working as an office manager for a computer game development company at the time of his arrest.
“He did not transmit any classified information related to IT development or programming because he did not even have access to it. Yan is not a terrorist but another victim of the politically motivated persecution of Ukrainian citizens by the Russian authorities,” the human rights organization said.
The CTRC also reported that Haupt was subjected to systematic ill-treatment and torture while in custody, leaving him with severe headaches. He is currently being held at Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don, according to the organization.
The sentence comes amid continued prosecutions of Ukrainian citizens in Russian-controlled territories. Earlier this year, a Russian-controlled court in the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol sentenced 51-year-old former Ukrainian serviceman Ruslan Chorny-Shevets to 18 years in prison on "state treason" charges.
According to Suspilne Crimea, the trial was conducted under what Ukrainian sources describe as illegal conditions, with Russian authorities alleging that Chorny-Shevets was an accomplice of another detained political prisoner, Serhii Likhomanov, who was recently transferred to temporarily occupied Simferopol.
Discuss this article:
-c439b7bd9030ecf9d5a4287dc361ba31.jpg "Photo of Katherina Popilnichenko")
